The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

One rat, popping up here and there, squeaking loudly, and taking a bath in the cream, could be a plague all by himself. After a few days of this, it was amazing how glad people were to see the kid with his magical rat pipe. And they were amazing when the rats followed hint out of town. They'd have been really amazed if they'd ever found out that the rats and the piper met up with a cat somewhere outside of town and solemnly counted out the money.

Not just another science audiobook and not just another Discworld novella, The Science of Discworld is a creative, mind-bending mash-up of fiction and fact, that offers a wizard’s-eye view of our world that will forever change how you look at the universe.

The Folklore of Discworld: Legends, Myths, and Customs from the Discworld with Helpful Hints from Planet Earth

Most of us grew up having always known when to touch wood or cross our fingers, and what happens when a princess kisses a frog or a boy pulls a sword from a stone, yet sadly some of these things are beginning to be forgotten. Legends, myths, and fairy tales: Our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got here. It is the same on Discworld, except that beings, which on Earth are creatures of the imagination - like vampires, trolls, witches and, possibly, gods - are real, alive and, in some cases kicking, on the Disc.

Dodger

A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's...Dodger. Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl - not even if her fate impacts the most powerful people in England.

Nation

Thirteen-year-old Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle, Daphne - a girl from the other side of the globe - is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.

Good Omens

The world will end on Saturday. Next Saturday. Just before dinner, according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655. The armies of Good and Evil are amassing and everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist.

Mike From Mesa says:"At long last!!"

Publisher's Summary

Time is a resource. Everyone knows it has to be managed. On Discworld that is the job of the highly capable Monks of History, who store it and pump it from the places where it's wasted (like underwater - how much time does a codfish need?) to places like cities, where there's never enough time. But the construction of the world's first truly accurate clock starts a race against, well, time, for the monk Lu Tze and his apprentice Lobsang Ludd. For if the perfect clock starts ticking, Time, as we know it, will stop. And then the trouble will really begin.

Subtle, sly, thought-provoking, and hilarious, Thief of Time is Terry Pratchett at his best.

This multi-voice production features Christopher Cazenove, Gabrielle de Cuir, Karesa McElheny, John Rubinstein, and Stefan Rudnicki, with a guest appearance by Harlan Ellison.

What the Critics Say

"It's time to discover one of the funniest, most literate, and most thought-provoking authors writing today." (Amazon.com) "This delightful production keeps the listener spellbound." (AudioFile) "Think J.R.R. Tolkien with a sharper, more satiric edge." (Houston Chronicle)

While most of the readers did a fine job with their segments, I found the switching of voices per character distracting. [This is not a "cast recording"-style reading, with one reader per character; each reader has a section of text and reads all the voices within that segment, so sometimes Igor is voiced by a woman and sometimes by a man - and with different accents, too {wry grin}.] Having one narrator for the text and the others doing one character-voice each might have worked better, though this would obviously be harder to record. Overall I'd prefer a single narrator - and Nigel Planer has been doing a wonderful job on the other books.

Out of all the Discworld books offered by this site, this is the first one to disappoint me. Having multiple people read a book is a fine idea, but why does this group have a tendency to change parts at will? You get used to hearing one voice read a character and then you get a different person reading the character with completely different style. I cannot come up with any reason why this was done except for the possibility that the person reading was the one who showed up to work that day. Several of the characters are well done by this group, which makes it even more disturbing when the voice for that character changes.

The story is another wonderful Discworld title. If you like the series, you will enjoy this one also. However, since I have learned that ISIS has produced this book with Stephen Briggs reading, I don't think I can recommend this version. I hope that Audible will acquire the ISIS version and continue to provide the ISIS versions of this series.

I found the novel to up to Pratchett's high standard. Studded with satire and dry wit this is a must read. My only minor complaint is the actor that portrayed Death did not have the same presence as some of the other audiobooks in the long Pratchett line. I can only hope that Audible and ISIS can come to an agreement and restore all of this wonderful writers work.

The Discworld audio books available on Audible.com are, in general, wonderfully engaging. Although the later books in the series are rather expensive, they are worth it. Unfortunately, this audio book is the exception to this general rule. It's a terrible shame, as the story itself is absolutely wonderful. The problem is with the audio production. Rather than having a single person read the entire book, the book is read by an ensemble cast. Unfortunately, not all the readers are equally well-suited for this genre, and the overall effect is incredibly jarring. For example, Pratchett's trademark parenthetical asides and footnotes are read in a completely different voice from the rest of the text, which ruins the flow of the narrative.

Because it was a Terry Pratchett story, I bought this with high hopes and because no other narration was available, but agree with other reviewers completely - the multi narrators are a disaster. When you have an absolute winner like Nigel Planer who has brought our old friends like DEATH and Nanny Ogg to life ( no joke exactly intended!) why change? To hear DEATH in an ordinary dull voice and Nanny Ogg so very American was just all wrong and such a let down, and it just got worse and worse. Please, please, please get Planer back and re- record this as continuous narrative with the right emphasis and pacing.The story is very very good, but the jarring narration distracts so badly.

Summary: All in all, buy the book, not the audible. The author is excellent. The sound production is extremely competent. However, there are too many narrators. They are not appropriate for reading satirical fantasy. Some have awful affectations for accents.

***

I have read every Pratchett book (up to Fifth Elephant) at least 3 times. The author is humorous and clever on several levels. Nigel Planer did a good job of carrying the appeal until I had a chance to listen to Briggs read A Hat Full of Sky and was hooked. (Between the two men, Briggs does a much better Vetinari.)

In this book, however, the entire tone and quality of _Thief_of_Time_ was lost in the blur of readers. A few were good, some were adequate, and one female voice was spectacularly bad in doing "Ronnie, the milkman."

Following the progression of producers and narrators, one can see maturation in the products (the audio versions of the Pratchett books). The reading of this book, on the other hand, did the talent of Pratchett a terrible disservice.

The sound production of this story was skilled, but I would prefer to listen to the early, amateurish productions of Pratchett (complete with sound chops and cheesy sound effects) rather than struggle through listening to this book again.

I mourn the loss of this book to this set of narrators and hope fervently that the production company doesn?t make the same mistake again.

I might be spoiled by Nigel Planer. This story is read by
multiple readers. They are very talented and each tries to
bring their piece to the story. Truthfully, give me Nigel
and I am one happy Discworld-er. The story is still well worth
it. I just hope future releases bring back Nigel Planer or someone
of his singular talent.
Steph

I love Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, however, in audible form, Nigel Planer is the best. I have purchased the Thief of Time, unfortunately without looking as to who the narrators were and am disappointed. The story is great, but the narration is greatly lacking personality. The narrators "just read". They do not put the oomph that Nigel Planer puts into his readings.

I am a long-time fan of Pratchett in print and in audiobook form. Thief of Time is undoubtedly one of his most inspired works, richly building on previous Discworld characters and storylines but providing enough context and addictive doses of humour to hook a newcomer to the series. Unfortunately, however, this particular audio version is of a lower quality than those I've previously enjoyed. While the individual readers themselves are good, even great at times, narrators switch annoyingly between characters, scenes, and accents, and the sound quality itself seems compromised. For example, narrators with a low register almost disappear entirely. I suggest reading this particular book, and listening to Monstrous Regiment for a great story with excellent recording quality.

This is another wonderful, funny story by Terry Prachett. It's wrapped in an uneven and uninspiring recording, which is too bad. His other books are read in the quirky British way that fits so well with his writing. This one is cut strangely, incorporates a LOT of vocal talent but doesn't show them to their advantage and doesn't have the rhythm the book needs.